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16 December 2019

Reflections on the Rule--Chapter 2---Article 13


Chapter Two:
The Way of Life

13. As the Father sees in every person the features of his Son, the firstborn of many brothers and sisters, so the Secular Franciscans with a gentle and courteous spirit accept all people as a gift of the Lord and an image of Christ.

Whoa! You mean that we must treat ALL people the same—as equal to me—with love, respect, and grace—no matter who they are?
In our modern day, our culture is centered around boundaries, fences, and exclusion--but that is not the way of Gospel living.  As our prime example, St. Francis shows us how to live a fully Gospel life by including everyone and everything in his circle of grace.  Oftentimes, we hear or see the word solidarity in the speeches and writings of our Pope and Bishops.  What they mean with this word is a unity or agreement of feeling or action with all people.   The Merriam-Webster.com definition limits this trait to those individuals with a common interest; mutual support within a group, but the gospel does not limit us in this way.  Article 18 of our General Constitutions explains our Franciscan take on this idea:
2. Rule 13 They should deepen the true foundations of universal kinship and create a spirit of welcome and an atmosphere of fraternity everywhere. They should firmly commit themselves to oppose every form of exploitation, discrimination, and exclusion and against every attitude of indifference in relation to others.
 3. Rule 13 They should work together with movements which promote the building of fraternity among peoples: they should be committed to "create worthy conditions of life" for all and to work for the freedom of all people.
As you can readily see, our action under Gospel to Life—Life to Gospel is inclusive of all people.  We are challenged to exclude no one from our circle of influence.  In fact, we oppose all discrimination & exclusion and work to incorporate all peoples into the fraternity and freedom of our human family.  
So, we must lay aside our narrow thinking promoted by our politics that encourages us to exclude those who are not like us.  What we must remember is that the hierarchy of belief is Gospel first, followed by political activity that is for the common good, not limited to any particular group or faction.  The self-centered ways of modern society have no room in Gospel living. 
In one of Richard Rohr, OFM’s daily meditations, he quotes Peter Block, John McKnight, and Walter Brueggemann in their book “An Other Kingdom: Departing the Consumer Culture” (John Wiley and Sons, Inc.: 2016), xiv, xviii-xix).:
We invite you to a journey of departure from this consumer culture. We ask you to imagine an alternative set of economic beliefs that have the capacity to evoke a culture where poverty, violence, and shrinking well-being are not inevitable—a culture in which the social order produces enough for all. . . .
This departure into another kingdom might be closer to the reality of our nature and what works best for our humanity. . . .
Neighborliness means that our well-being and what really matters is close at hand and can be locally constructed or produced. 
Their contention is that our consumer culture is one of limiting and exclusion.  They are proposing a different approach that will lead to a post-consumer culture of neighborliness and inclusion.  As Father Rohr says, “It sounds a lot like the Gospel to me.”
As we delve deeper into the implications of living in solidarity with all people, we will find that the church has a lot to say in guiding us into a different, more inclusive lifestyle.  In so doing, we follow in the footsteps of St. Francis and, as faithful followers, become a counter-cultural force in modern society.  This is how we rebuild the Church and modern society.
And so, we return to a deeper consideration of Article 13 of our Rule.
1In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the eartha
24k Then God said: Let the earth bring forth every kind of living creature: tame animals, crawling things, and every kind of wild animal. And so it happened:25God made every kind of wild animal, every kind of tame animal, and every kind of thing that crawls on the ground. God saw that it was good.
26l Then God said: Let us make* human beings in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the tame animals, all the wild animals, and all the creatures that crawl on the earth.
27God created mankind in his image;
in the image of God he created them;
male and female* he created them.
We are all familiar with the story of creation, summarized in the preceding quotation from Genesis 1.  Often, we emphasize the words which follow this text, “…fill the earth and subdue it…”  We believe that this gives us license to do what ever we want to “be in control” of the earth, its resources, and other people.  Because of our cultural bias, we believe that the first man and woman were white and, consequently, it follows that we are just better that everyone and everything else.  That is not what it says!  The creation of man was the last thing in this creation story.  Even the implication of Chapter 2 of Genesis is that everything else is created and THEN, AND ONLY THEN, is a human placed in the Garden of Eden.  Yes, we are special because we have been created in the “image and likeness of God;” but that doesn’t give us an special status.  In fact, if we truly believe that we are following St. Francis, it requires us to become and remain “minore” (smaller, lesser, shorter, lower).  We are not the Big Man On Campus that we would like to be.  Yes, Gospel living requires us to be the servant of all—equal in every way to all others on the earth, no matter their status.
The Church reminds us,
225 It means knowing the unity and true dignity of all men: everyone is made in the image and likeness of God. 50
358 God created everything for man, 222 but man in turn was created to serve and love God and to offer all creation back to him:
What is it that is about to be created, that enjoys such honour? It is man that great and wonderful living creature, more precious in the eyes of God than all other creatures! For him the heavens and the earth, the sea and all the rest of creation exist. God attached so much importance to his salvation that he did not spare his own Son for the sake of man. Nor does he ever cease to work, trying every possible means, until he has raised man up to himself and made him sit at his right hand. 223
360 Because of its common origin the human race forms a unity, for "from one ancestor [God] made all nations to inhabit the whole earth": 226
O wondrous vision, which makes us contemplate the human race in the unity of its origin in God. . . in the unity of its nature, composed equally in all men of a material body and a spiritual soul; in the unity of its immediate end and its mission in the world; in the unity of its dwelling, the earth, whose benefits all men, by right of nature, may use to sustain and develop life; in the unity of its supernatural end: God himself, to whom all ought to tend; in the unity of the means for attaining this end;. . . in the unity of the redemption wrought by Christ for all. 227
361 "This law of human solidarity and charity", 228 without excluding the rich variety of persons, cultures and peoples, assures us that all men are truly brethren.

Unity, true dignity, everyone, serve, love, offer back, raised man up, common origin, unity, composed equally, human solidarity, and “…assures us that all men are truly brethren.”  What these words tell us is that each of is not individually special or raised up, but we are all made from the same stock and are equal in the sight of God.  Understanding this concept carries with it the obligation to treat “…others as we ourselves would like to be treated.” (Matt. 22:39)
As Franciscans, our “…gentle and courteous spirit accept all people as a gift of the Lord and an image of Christ.”  As much as one tries you cannot find any words in any of this that create an exceptionalism for any individual or group of people—not even apart from the entire created universe.  That’s what St. Francis shows us with his example: Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Brothers wind & air, Sister Water, Brother Fire, Sister Mother Earth, those who grant pardon, those who endure sickness & trial, and those who endure in peace.  His whole life was centered upon loving God and all of God’s creation with his whole spirit. 
Consequently, the Church instructs us in our obligation and duty to live the Gospel with that solidarity in mind:
2212 The fourth commandment illuminates other relationships in society. In our brothers and sisters we see the children of our parents; in our cousins, the descendants of our ancestors; in our fellow citizens, the children of our country; in the baptized, the children of our mother the Church; in every human person, a son or daughter of the One who wants to be called "our Father." In this way our relationships with our neighbors are recognized as personal in character. The neighbor is not a "unit" in the human collective; he is "someone" who by his known origins deserves particular attention and respect.
1702 The divine image is present in every man. It shines forth in the communion of persons, in the likeness of the unity of the divine persons among themselves (cf. chapter two).
1935 The equality of men rests essentially on their dignity as persons and the rights that flow from it:
Every form of social or cultural discrimination in fundamental personal rights on the grounds of sex, race, color, social conditions, language, or religion must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with God's design. 40

Our Rule says,
A sense of community will make them joyful and ready to place themselves on an equal basis with all people, especially with the lowly for whom they shall strive to create conditions of life worthy of people redeemed by Christ.
These words are the crux of the matter.  No matter who the person is we willingly treat all people the same way—with love, grace, and mercy.  We even have an obligation to care more especially for “…the lowly.”  In other words, we bend over backwards to ensure that those without the gifts of others receive our special care and devotion to help them understand that they too are worthy people included in this great enterprise that we call life.
The Church has a lot to say about this aspect of this aspect of our Gospel living:
1934 Created in the image of the one God and equally endowed with rational souls, all men have the same nature and the same origin. Redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ, all are called to participate in the same divine beatitude: all therefore enjoy an equal dignity.
1931 Respect for the human person proceeds by way of respect for the principle that "everyone should look upon his neighbor (without any exception) as 'another self,' above all bearing in mind his life and the means necessary for living it with dignity." 37 No legislation could by itself do away with the fears, prejudices, and attitudes of pride and selfishness which obstruct the establishment of truly fraternal societies. Such behavior will cease only through the charity that finds in every man a "neighbor," a brother.
1936 On coming into the world, man is not equipped with everything he needs for developing his bodily and spiritual life. He needs others. Differences appear tied to age, physical abilities, intellectual or moral aptitudes, the benefits derived from social commerce, and the distribution of wealth. 41 The "talents" are not distributed equally. 42
1937 These differences belong to God's plan, who wills that each receive what he needs from others, and that those endowed with particular "talents" share the benefits with those who need them. These differences encourage and often oblige persons to practice generosity, kindness, and sharing of goods; they foster the mutual enrichment of cultures:
I distribute the virtues quite diversely; I do not give all of them to each person, but some to one, some to others.... I shall give principally charity to one; justice to another; humility to this one, a living faith to that one.... And so I have given many gifts and graces, both spiritual and temporal, with such diversity that I have not given everything to one single person, so that you may be constrained to practice charity towards one another.... I have willed that one should need another and that all should be my ministers in distributing the graces and gifts they have received from me. 43
1938 There exist also sinful inequalities that affect millions of men and women. These are in open contradiction of the Gospel:
Their equal dignity as persons demands that we strive for fairer and more humane conditions. Excessive economic and social disparity between individuals and peoples of the one human race is a source of scandal and militates against social justice, equity, human dignity, as well as social and international peace. 44
1939 The principle of solidarity, also articulated in terms of "friendship" or "social charity," is a direct demand of human and Christian brotherhood. 45
An error, "today abundantly widespread, is disregard for the law of human solidarity and charity, dictated and imposed both by our common origin and by the equality in rational nature of all men, whatever nation they belong to. This law is sealed by the sacrifice of redemption offered by Jesus Christ on the altar of the Cross to his heavenly Father, on behalf of sinful humanity." 46
1940 Solidarity is manifested in the first place by the distribution of goods and remuneration for work. It also presupposes the effort for a more just social order where tensions are better able to be reduced and conflicts more readily settled by negotiation.
1941 Socio-economic problems can be resolved only with the help of all the forms of solidarity: solidarity of the poor among themselves, between rich and poor, of workers among themselves, between employers and employees in a business, solidarity among nations and peoples. International solidarity is a requirement of the moral order; world peace depends in part upon this.
Catechism of the Catholic Church
Recognizing that this citation is voluminous, it must be recognized that the lack of equality and solidarity is, perhaps, the greatest issue of our modern time.   Our cultural bias is in favor of the long-held view of “the survival of the fittest.” I don’t believe that our Gospel values allow us to think that way.  The capitalist shouts, “Mine, mine, mine.”  The Franciscan quietly says, “We are all in this together. How may I help you?”  Perhaps, this is the singularly most important distinction between modern life and Gospel living—a counter-cultural way of living that places others needs before our own; being lower, lesser, and smaller than everyone else; placing our lives in service to others----following in the footsteps of St. Francis who mirrored Christ Jesus in every way possible.  Our challenge is to do the same.
 Pace e bene

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